SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was expected to tour a Russian plant that builds fighter jets and visit the country’s Pacific Fleet, but his exact whereabouts remained uncertain Thursday following a summit at which he expressed unconditional support for Moscow.
Washington has warned that the summit on Wednesday between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin could lead to a deal for North Korea to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. There’s widespread concern in Seoul that North Korea would in return receive advanced weapons technologies from Russia, including those related to military spy satellites, which would increase the threat posed by Kim’s military nuclear program.
“We express our deep concern and regret that despite repeated warnings from the international community, North Korea and Russia discussed military cooperation issues, including satellite development, during their summit,” said Lim Soo-suk, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
“Any science and technology cooperation that contributes to nuclear weapons and missile development, including satellite systems that involve ballistic missile technologies, runs against UN Security Council resolutions,” he said in a briefing.
Lim also pointed out that Kim’s delegation in Russia includes several people sanctioned by the Security Council over involvement in illicit North Korean weapons development activities, including Korean People’s Army Marshal Ri Pyong Chol and Jo Chun Yong, a ruling party official who handles munitions policies. Lim said Moscow should realize there will be “very negative impacts” on its relations with Seoul if it proceeds with military cooperation with North Korea.
South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, who handles affairs with North Korea, warned that potential arms transfers between the North and Russia would invite stronger responses from South Korea, the US and Japan, which have been stepping up their trilateral security cooperation to cope with regional threats.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday that North Korea would face consequences if it supplies arms to Russia.
“No nation on the planet, nobody, should be helping Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainians,” Kirby said. If the countries decide to move forward with an arms deal, the US will take measure of the arrangement and “deal with it appropriately,” he said.
He said that any deal that would improve North Korea’s military capabilities “certainly would be of significant concern to us.”
The world has been largely relying on Russian and North Korean media for information about Kim’s diplomacy in Russia, which underscores an aligning interest between the nuclear-armed countries locked in escalating tensions with the West.
A day after giving intense coverage to the summit, Russian media outlets were silent on Kim as of Thursday afternoon. North Korean state media have been reporting on his activities in Russia a day late and crafting their reports to support the government’s propaganda needs.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that Kim had invited Putin to visit North Korea at a “convenient time” and that Putin accepted with “pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward” the history of friendship between the nations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had accepted the invitation and said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit North Korea in October.
Putin told Russian state TV after the summit that Kim will travel to two more cities in Russia’s Far East on his own, flying to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific Fleet, a university and other facilities.
During their meeting on Wednesday at Russia’s spaceport in the Far East, Kim vowed “full and unconditional support” for Putin in what he described as a “just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests,” in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine.
The decision to meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome suggested that Kim is seeking Russian help in developing military reconnaissance satellites. He has previously said they are crucial to enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. North Korea has repeatedly failed to place spy satellites into orbit.
The aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur would be another location that possibly hints at what Kim seeks to gain from Russia in exchange for help fueling Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Some analysts question whether Russia, which has always closely guarded its sensitive weapons technologies, would be willing to share them with North Korea in exchange for what may end up being limited supplies of munitions moved slowly through their small land link.
They say military cooperation between the countries could be more about conventional capabilities, such as Russia possibly helping North Korea improve its badly aged air force that remains reliant on fighter jets sent by the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Putin told reporters that Russia and North Korea have “lots of interesting projects” in spheres like transportation and agriculture and that Moscow is providing its neighbor with humanitarian aid. But he avoided talking about military cooperation, saying only that Russia is abiding by the sanctions prohibiting procuring weapons from North Korea.
Wednesday’s meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in testing since 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by war in Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.
No sign of Kim Jong Un on his Russian travels as Seoul expresses concern over meetings with Putin
https://arab.news/zvw6p
No sign of Kim Jong Un on his Russian travels as Seoul expresses concern over meetings with Putin
- Washington has warned that the summit between Kim and Putin could lead to a deal for North Korea to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in Ukraine
- There’s widespread concern in Seoul that North Korea would in return receive advanced weapons technologies from Russia
Bangladesh seeks arrest of MP cricketer over bounced cheques
- Bangladesh court issues warrant for Shakib Al Hasan for bounced cheques totaling $300,000
- Hasan is a former lawmaker from the party of autocratic, ousted ex-leader Sheikh Hasina
Dhaka: A Bangladeshi court issued an arrest warrant on Sunday for cricket star Shakib Al Hasan for bounced cheques totalling more than $300,000, in the latest blow for the ousted lawmaker.
“The court has previously summoned Shakib but he did not appear at the court,” said Mohammed Shahibur Rahman from the IFIC Bank, which filed the case.
“Now, the court has issued the warrant,” he said.
Shakib is a former lawmaker from the party of autocratic ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, who was overthrown by revolution and fled by helicopter to India in August 2024.
His links to Hasina made him a target of public anger and he was among dozens facing murder investigations for a deadly police crackdown on protesters during the uprising.
He has not been charged over those allegations.
Shakib was playing in a domestic Twenty20 cricket competition in Canada when Hasina’s government collapsed and has not returned to Bangladesh since.
The left-arm allrounder has played 71 Tests, 247 one-day internationals and 129 Twenty20s for Bangladesh, taking a combined 712 wickets.
However, he was left out of the 15-man squad for the one-day international tournament in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and Dubai next month.
Najmul Hossain Shanto will captain the side, with Bangladesh placed in Group A alongside India, Pakistan and New Zealand.
UK family visa applicants from war-torn countries caught in bureaucratic limbo
- Home Office granting just a handful of waivers to people in countries where biometric information cannot be collected
- Those seeking refuge from Gaza, Sudan and Afghanistan among those awaiting authorization
LONDON: Refugees trying to escape Gaza, Sudan and Afghanistan and join family members in the UK are in limbo between government bureaucracy and a lack of biometric processing facilities.
As part of the family reunification visa application process, applicants must submit biometric information, usually including a fingerprint, at centers in the countries from which they apply.
But such centers often either do not exist in war-torn areas or the facilities are not available to gather the information. This means applicants must either complete the biometric processing once in the UK or be excused from the biometric process entirely.
Figures published by The Guardian on Saturday, however, show that just a handful of these deferrals or exemptions have been granted by the UK.
As of May 2024, 114 people had requested to have their applications “pre-determined” by delaying the submission of biometric data until reaching the UK. Another 84 people had requested to be excused from providing biometric information altogether. By February 2024, just eight predetermination cases and one excusal had been authorized.
The highest number of the requests came from Palestinians and those in Afghanistan and Sudan, where visa application centers have been forced to close due to conflict.
Members of parliament and charities have accused the Home Office of blocking people such in areas from joining their families in the UK.
They compared it to the situation in Ukraine, where people can apply for family reunification visas in the UK without submitting biometrics beforehand.
“The UK rightly welcomed Ukrainian refugees fleeing war. Why can’t the same compassion be shown to people from Gaza and elsewhere?” a coalition of independent MPs, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, told The Guardian.
Nick Beales, head of campaigns at the charity RAMFEL, which helps vulnerable migrants access justice, said: “This disclosure proves that it was actually impossible for people in conflict zones, such as Sudan and Gaza, to apply for visas even when they had clear family ties in the UK.”
A Home Office spokesperson told The Guardian they understood applicants may face challenging circumstances to reach a visa application center to submit biometrics, saying: “That is why individuals have the option to submit a biometric deferral request, which is assessed on its own merits, and exceptional circumstances are considered.”
Taliban deputy tells leader there is no excuse for education bans on Afghan women and girls
- The Taliban government has barred Afghan females from education after sixth grade
- There are reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women
A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.
He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.”
The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban.
“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. “We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.”
Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve to have an education. He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before the introduction of a university ban.
But the latest comments marked his first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia program, said Stanikzai had periodically made statements calling girls’ education a right of all Afghan women.
“However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach,” Bahiss said.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on women and girls’ education.
She was speaking at a conference hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League.
The UN has said that recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place and women can’t go out in public without a male guardian.
No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, but countries like Russia have been building ties with them.
Protesters storm South Korea court after it extends Yoon’s detention
- Yoon Suk Yeol is first sitting South Korean president to be arrested over his short-lived Dec. 3 declaration of martial law
SEOUL: Hundreds of supporters of South Korea’s arrested president, Yoon Suk Yeol, stormed a court building early on Sunday after his detention was extended, smashing windows and breaking inside, an attack the country’s acting leader called “unimaginable.”
Yoon on Wednesday became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested as he faces allegations of insurrection related to his stunning, short-lived Dec. 3 declaration of martial law that has plunged the country into political turmoil.
Shortly after the court announced its decision around 3 a.m. (1800 GMT) on Sunday, Yoon’s supporters swarmed the building, overwhelming riot police trying to keep them at bay.
Protesters blasted fire extinguishers at lines of police guarding the front entrance, then flooded inside, destroying office equipment, fittings and furniture, footage showed.
Police restored order a few hours later, saying they had arrested 46 protesters and vowing to track down others involved.
“The government expresses strong regret over the illegal violence... which is unimaginable in a democratic society,” acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement, adding that the authorities would step up safety measures around gatherings.
Nine police officers were injured in the chaos, Yonhap news agency reported. Police were not immediately available for comment on the injured officers.
About 40 people suffered minor injuries, said an emergency responder near the Seoul Western District Court.
Several of those involved live-streamed the intrusion on YouTube, showing protesters trashing the court and chanting Yoon’s name. Some streamers were caught by police during their broadcasts.
CONCERN YOON MAY DESTROY EVIDENCE
With Yoon refusing to be questioned, investigators facing a deadline on detaining the impeached president asked the court on Friday to extend his custody.
After a five-hour hearing on Saturday, which Yoon attended, a judge granted a new warrant extending Yoon’s detention for up to 20 days, due to “concern that the suspect may destroy evidence.”
South Korean regulations require a suspect detained under a warrant to undergo a physical exam, have a mugshot taken and wear a prison uniform.
The leader is being held in a solitary cell at the Seoul Detention Center.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is leading the probe, said it had called Yoon in for further questioning on Sunday afternoon but the prosecutor-turned-president again did not show up. The CIO said it would ask Yoon to come in for questioning on Monday.
His lawyers have argued the arrest is illegal because the warrant was issued in the wrong jurisdiction and the investigating team had no mandate for their probe.
Insurrection, the crime that Yoon may be charged with, is one of the few that a South Korean president does not have immunity from and is technically punishable by death. South Korea, however, has not executed anyone in nearly 30 years.
Yoon said through his lawyers he found the violent incident at court “shocking and unfortunate,” calling on people to express their opinions peacefully.
“The president said... he wouldn’t give up and would correct the wrong, even if it took time,” the lawyers said in a statement. Saying he understands many are feeling “rage and unfairness,” Yoon asked police to take a “tolerant position.”
Separate to the criminal probe that sparked Sunday’s chaos, the Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to permanently remove him from office, in line with parliament’s Dec. 14 impeachment, or restore his presidential powers.
POLITICAL PARTIES WEIGH IN
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party called the court’s decision to extend his detention on Sunday a “great pity.”
“There’s a question whether repercussions of detaining a sitting president were sufficiently considered,” the party said in a statement.
The main opposition Democratic Party said the decision was a “cornerstone” for rebuilding order and that “riots” by “far-right” groups would only deepen the national crisis.
Support for the PPP collapsed after his martial law declaration, which he rescinded hours later in the face of a unanimous vote in parliament rejecting it.
But in the turmoil since — in which the opposition-majority parliament also impeached his first replacement and investigators botched an initial attempt to arrest Yoon — the PPP’s support has sharply rebounded.
His party has edged ahead of the opposition Democratic Party in support — 39 percent to 36 percent — for the first time since August, a Gallup Korea poll showed on Friday.
Thousands gathered for an orderly rally in support of Yoon in downtown Seoul on Sunday morning. Anti-Yoon demonstrations have also taken place across the city in recent days.
Suspected Bangladeshi arrested in stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan
- Attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry
- Bollywood star was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home
MUMBAI: A man thought to be a citizen of Bangladesh was arrested in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Sunday and is considered the prime suspect in the stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, police said.
Thursday’s attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry and Mumbai residents, with many calling for better policing and security. He was out of danger, doctors said, and has left the hospital.
“Primary evidence suggests that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen and after entering India illegally he changed his name,” Dixit Gedam, a deputy commissioner of police, told a press conference.
The suspect, arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, was using the name Vijay Das but is believed to be Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad and was working with a housekeeping agency after having come to the city five or six months ago, Gedam said.
The police will seek custody of the suspect for further investigation, he added.
Khan, 54, was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home. He had surgery after sustaining stab wounds to his spine, neck and hands, doctors said.
Police in Mumbai detained a first key suspect in the attack on Friday, while police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh detained a second person on Saturday.
